Wednesday, December 9, 2015

From Wikipedia"Packard was founded by James Ward Packard, his brother William, and their partner, George Lewis Weiss, in the city of Warren, Ohio,
where 400 Packard automobiles were built at their factory on Dana
Street Northeast, from 1899 to 1903. A mechanical engineer, James
Packard believed they could build a better horseless carriage than the Winton cars owned by Weiss, an important Winton stockholder, after Packard complained to Alexander Winton and offered suggestions for improvement, which were ignored; Packard's first car was built in Warren, Ohio, on November 6, 1899.In September, 1900, the Ohio Automobile Company was founded to
produce Packard automobiles. These quickly gained an excellent
reputation and the name was changed on October 13, 1902,to the Packard Motor Car Company.All Packards had a single-cylinder engine until 1903. From the very beginning, Packard featured innovations, including the modern steering wheel and, years later, the first production 12-cylinder engine and air-conditioning in a passenger car.While the Black Motor Company's Black went as low as $375,Western Tool Works' Gale Model A roadster was $500, the high-volume OldsmobileRunabout went for $650,and the Cole 30 and Cole Runabout were US$1,500,
Packard concentrated on cars with prices starting at $2,600. The marque
developed a following among wealthy purchasers both in the United
States and abroad, competing with European marques like Rolls-Royce and Mercedes Benz.Henry Bourne Joy, a member of one of Detroit's
oldest and wealthiest families, bought a Packard. Impressed by its
reliability, he visited the Packards and soon enlisted a group of
investors—including Truman Handy Newberry
and Russell A. Alger Jr. On October 2, 1902, this group refinanced and
renamed the New York and Ohio Automobile Company as the Packard Motor
Car Company, with James Packard as president. Alger later served as vice
president.
Packard moved operations to Detroit soon after, and Joy became general
manager (and laterchairman of the board). An original Packard, reputedly
the first manufactured, was donated by a grateful James Packard to his alma mater, Lehigh University, and is preserved there in the Packard Laboratory. Another is on display at the Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio.The 3,500,000-square-foot (330,000 m2) Packard plant on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit was located on over 40 acres (16 ha) of land. Designed by Albert Kahn Associates,
it included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial
construction in Detroit and was considered the most modern automobile
manufacturing facility in the world when opened in 1903. Its skilled craftsmen practiced over 80 trades. The dilapidated plant still stands, despite repeated fires. Architect Kahn also designed the Packard Proving Grounds at Utica, Michigan.

1937–1941

Packard was still the premier luxury automobile, even though the majority of cars being built were the 120 and Super Eight model ranges. Hoping to catch still more of the market, Packard decided to issue the Packard 115C
in 1937, which was powered by Packard's first six-cylinder engine since
the Fifth Series cars in 1928. While the move to introduce the Six, priced at around $1200,was brilliant, for the car arrived just in time for the 1938 recession,
it also tagged Packards as something less exclusive than they had been
in the public's mind, and in the long run hurt Packard's reputation of
building some of America's finest luxury cars. The Six, redesignated 110 in 1940–41, continued for three years after the war, with many serving as taxicabs.In 1939, Packard introduced Econo-Drive, a kind of overdrive, claimed able to reduce engine speed 27.8%; it could be engaged at any speed over 30 mph (48 km/h).
The same year, the company introduced a fifth, transverse shock
absorber and made column shift (known as Handishift) available on the
120 and Six.

The end

Studebaker-Packard pulled the Packard nameplate from the marketplace
in 1959. It kept its name until 1962 when "Packard" was dropped off the
corporation's name at a time when it was introducing the all new Avanti,
and a less anachronistic image was being sought, thus finishing the
story of the great American Packard marque. Ironically, it was
considered that the Packard name might be used for the new fiberglass
sports car, as well as Pierce-Arrow, the make Studebaker controlled in
the late 1920s and early 1930s.In the late 1950s, Studebaker-Packard was approached by enthusiasts to rebadge the French car maker Facel-Vega's Excellencesuicide-door,
four-door hardtop as a 'Packard' for sale in North America, using stock
Packard V8s, and identifying trim including red hexagonal wheel covers,
cormorant hood ornament, and classic vertical ox-yoke grille. The proposition was rejected when Daimler-Benz
threatened to pull out of its 1957 marketing and distribution
agreement, which would have cost Studebaker-Packard more in revenue than
they could have made from the badge-engineered Packard. Daimler-Benz
had little of its own dealer network at the time and used this agreement
to enter and become more established in the American market through
SPC's dealer network, and felt this car was a threat to their models. By
acquiescing, SPC did themselves no favors and may have accelerated
their exit from automobiles, and Mercedes-Benz protecting their own
turf, helped ensure their future.

The Texan originated from the North American NA-16
prototype (first flown on April 1, 1935) which, modified as the NA-26,
was submitted as an entry for a USAAC "Basic Combat" aircraft
competition in March, 1937. The first model went into production and 180 were supplied to the USAAC as the BC-1 and 400 to the RAF as the Harvard I. The US Navy received 16 modified aircraft, designated the SNJ-1, and a further 61 as the SNJ-2 with a different engine.The BC-1 was the production version of the NA-26 prototype, with
retractable tailwheel landing gear and the provision for armament, a
two-way radio, and the 550 hp (410 kW) R-1340-47 engine as standard
equipment. Production versions included the BC-1 (Model NA-36) with only minor modifications (177 built), of which 30 were modified as BC-1I instrument trainers; the BC-1A (NA-55) with airframe revisions (92 built); and a single BC-1B with a modified wing center-section.Three BC-2 aircraft were built before the shift to the "advanced trainer" designation, AT-6,
which was equivalent to the BC-1A. The differences between the AT-6 and
the BC-1 were new outer wing panels with a swept forward trailing edge,
squared-off wingtips and a triangular rudder, producing the canonical
Texan silhouette. After a change to the rear of the canopy, the AT-6 was
designated the Harvard II for RAF/RCAF orders and 1,173 were supplied by purchase or Lend Lease, mostly operating in Canada as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.Next came the AT-6A which was based on the NA-77 design and was powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-1340-49 Wasp radial engine. The USAAF received 1,549 and the US Navy 270 (as the SNJ-3). The AT-6B was built for gunnery training and could mount a .30 in machine gun
on the forward fuselage. It used the R-1340-AN-1 engine, which was to
become the standard for the remaining T-6 production. Canada's Noorduyn Aviation built an R-1340-AN-1-powered version of the AT-6A, which was supplied to the USAAF as the AT-16 (1,500 aircraft) and the RAF/RCAF as the Harvard IIB (2,485 aircraft), some of which also served with the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Canadian Navy.In late 1937 Mitsubushi purchased two NA-16s as technology demonstrators and possibly a licence to build more. However, the aircraft developed by Watanabe/Kyushu as the K10W1 (Allied code name Oak) bore no more than a superficial resemblance to the North American design. It featured a full monocoque
fuselage as opposed to the steel tube fuselage of the T-6 and NA-16
family of aircraft, as well as being of smaller dimensions overall and
had no design details in common with the T-6. It was used in very small
numbers by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1942 onwards. After the war
the Japanese Air Self Defense Force operated Texans.The NA-88 design resulted in 2,970 AT-6C Texans and 2,400 as the SNJ-4. The RAF received 726 of the AT-6C as the Harvard IIA. Modifications to the electrical system produced the AT-6D (3,713 produced) and SNJ-5 (1,357 produced). The AT-6D, redesignated the Harvard III,
was supplied to the RAF (351 aircraft) and Fleet Air Arm (564
aircraft). The AT-6G (SNJ-7) involved major advancements including a
full-time hydraulic system and a steerable tailwheel and persisted into
the 1950s as the USAF advanced trainer.Subsequently the NA-121 design with a completely clear rearmost section on the canopy, gave rise to 25 AT-6F Texans for the USAAF and 931, as the SNJ-6 for the US Navy. The ultimate version, the Harvard 4, was produced by Canada Car and Foundry during the 1950s, and supplied to the RCAF, USAF and Bundeswehr.A total of 15,495 T-6s of all variants were built.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Here are some images of Trumpeter's 1/35 scale WWII US Navy LCM (3) Landing CraftFrom Wikipedia"The Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) or Landing Craft Mechanical is a landing craft designed for carrying vehicles. They came to prominence during the Second World War when they were used to land troops or tanks during Allied amphibious assaults.

There was no single design of LCM used, unlike the Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or Landing Craft Assault
(LCA) landing craft made by the US and UK respectively. There were
several different designs built by the UK and US and by different
manufacturers.The British Motor Landing Craft
was conceived and tested in the 1920s and was used from 1924 in
exercises. It was the first purpose built tank landing craft. It was the
progenitor of all subsequent LCM designs.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

From the instructions"
Leonardo da Vinci's idea was to build a very powerful machine which could throw eight large projectiles at the same time.
He positioned eight long arms around a central pin, each of which had a sling capable of throwing a projectile attached to it.
This kind of project, where weapons were developed to hurl multiple projectiles to be more powerful, was common in da Vinci's time, because doing this meant creating more powerful weapons, simply by increasing their number and power, without the need to develop new building techniques and using familiar materials. They were therefore potentially attractive weapons because they were powerful,but they were also relatively inexpensive.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Here are some images of Academy's Leonardo da Vinci's Spingarde.
These are simple kits but they're fun.

From the instructions"
The Leonardo da Vinci Spingarde launcher was placed on a firm wooden structure and could launch projectiles at targets over a wide range, due to its ability to move in all directions. Although heavy, efficient aiming was not difficult, making it highly functional on the battlefield.

Friday, November 20, 2015

From Wikipedia"HMS Halifax was a schooner built for merchant service at Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1765 that the British Royal Navy purchased in 1768 for coastal patrol in North America in the years just prior to the American Revolution. She is one of the best documented schooners from early North America. The schooner was built by a group of Halifax merchants with government support as the Nova Scotia Packet, to establish a reliable packet service of mail and passengers between Halifax and Boston in 1765. The managing owner was, Joseph Grey, the son in law of the commissioner of the Halifax Naval Yard where the schooner was likely built. Launched in late September 1765, the schooner made her first voyage on 15 October 1765 under the command of Benjamin Green Jnr.
Weather permitting, the packet sailed every eight days between Halifax
and Boston and made 23 round trips during her merchant career. In July
1768, the Nova Scotia Packet was chartered by Commodore Samuel Hood in Halifax to take dispatches to Portsmouth, England. Hood also recommended that the schooner be purchased by the British Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy purchased the schooner on 12 October 1768 and renamed her Halifax; she met a need for more coastal patrol schooners to combat smuggling and deal with colonial unrest in New England.
The careful record of her lines and construction by Portsmouth dockyard
naval architects, and the detailed record of her naval service, make
the schooner a much-studied example of early schooners in North America.

Original Royal Navy plans of HMS Halifax

After being surveyed in September 1768 she was commissioned in
October and fitted out at Portsmouth between October and December. Her first commander was Lieutenant Samuel Scott, who sailed her back to North America in January 1769. In 1769 Halifax confiscated and towed the schooner Liberty, later HMS Liberty, belonging to John Hancock. Halifax
returned to Britain for a refit in December 1770, and the following
year was under the command of Lieutenant Abraham Crespin. Lieutenant
Jacob Rogers took command in 1773, and was succeeded in 1774 by
Lieutenant Joseph Nunn.

After an active career on the coast on North America she was wrecked on 15 February 1775 at Foster Island near Machias, Maine. she was reportedly intentionally run aground by a local pilot.
The court martial of Nunn, his officers, and crew, attributed the loss
to the pilot's ignorance; nothing came of this as the pilot had
disappeared while Nunn was arranging transport from Sheep's Island to
Boston for his crew with a local shipowner, Mr. Beale.The wreck played a role in the Battle of Machias later that year, when Admiral Samuel Graves ordered that her guns be recovered. A later schooner named Halifax serving in North America was recorded as being purchased in 1775, though her lines were identical to the Halifax sunk that year, and she may therefore have been salved and returned to service.